Are You Ready for Football Friday? We Are!

The “endowment week,” which I like to call the exhibition season, is in the books, and this Friday marks the official start of the 2007 high school football season. At WRAL-TV, we will begin our 27th season of our little show we call Football Friday.

Well, it does take a lot of coordination, and many times it's not easy -- but each week is always interesting and usually different. And I must admit that sometimes I'm not sure how we get it on the air, but it works out more often than not. Most of the time.

By Sunday, he will e-mail to me a list of the 28 games he thinks we should cover that week and the photographer/reporter assignments. Also, Bob has compiled a list of maybe eight to 10 other games that he wants me to take a look at and see if I think one of those games should be substituted for one of the original 28.

On Monday, I call Bob at home and we discuss the line-up. Sometimes it's just a cut-and-dried conversation like, "Yeah, that looks good," and other times we might talk for more than an hour over the course of several conversations, trying to sort out what we feel will be the best set of games for that week. Of the 28 games we will cover, I will voice 16 of them , and the other 12 will be divided among six reporters who will do what we call “packages.” For instance, this week we plan on Ken Medlin shooting and reporting on Wilson Hunt at Rocky Mount and Smithfield-Selma at Nash Central. You will hear his voice and see his pictures of those games.

Putting together Football Friday is a week-long process. On Monday, I start to put together the show line-up. So many times someone has said to me, "Why are our highlights so late in the show?" Usually the person who's asking that is at a school a good ways from the station. I stack my rundown according to how soon I think that the photographer will be back in-house. Those who cover games in the Triangle are back much quicker than, say, games being covered in Person, Hoke or Cumberland counties So I want to make sure that I give each photographer enough time to get his or her highlights ready and hopefully hit the slot in the show.

Tuesday, I start to put in graphic information, which is very tedious, and begin to write my lead-in scripts. Each lead-in is written before Friday. (If I waited until Friday to do this, we'd never get the show on.) Also, I finish compiling our list of what we feel are the best teams in the viewing area, the Fabulous 15. That airs on Wednesday.

Wednesday is always busy because that's the day we present the Extra Effort Award. I write and record that for airing on Thursday, plus I continue work on Football Friday. I have everything done for Football Friday by the time I leave on Thursday night.

Now, no local television station has 28 cameras, much less 28 photographers, so one photographer is assigned two games. (Actually, our producer, Brad Simmons, has been known to shoot three.) He or she will shoot the first quarter and a half of one game and then head to the second game, hopefully arriving at half time or just into the third quarter.

Of course, both games have to be within reasonable driving distance of each other. Geography and logistics do play such a key role in putting together our schedule. We love those schools that play 7 p.m. games. They match up well with a 7:30 start. Also, we usually want to pair two teams that are in our viewing area. Many times in the first few weeks of the season, a viewing-area team will play a school from say, Guilford County, which is not in our viewing area. The chances are we won't cover that game because no one in Guilford County is watching our show. We do want to have as many viewers as we can because if no one is watching, guess what? There's no Football Friday.

A cardinal rule of Football Friday is that the photographers, each of whom usually has a college note-taker along, call me as soon as they can with their list of plays. For instance, by the time they reach their second game, I should have the information from their first game. And on their way back from their second game, they should be calling in those plays. We usually want at least three to four plays. By the way, nothing pains me more than when I hear these infamous words, "Tom, I'm leaving my first game and it's 0-0." That will turn my hair just a little grayer.

But what I try to do is visualize what I've been told and write my scripts accordingly. I time out each play and leave the instructions on a board for the photogs to pick up when they return. And I will tell you this, those that take the pictures for Football Friday are the best. It is their video that makes the show. And what's so neat is, nobody makes them work on this show. They ask to do it. They think it's fun. I am very grateful to them all.

Now, I always hope that I can actually see the video before it airs on Football Friday, but sometimes because of how far we send crews, that doesn't always happen. Many times, video is being edited while the show is on the air, and every now and then we have to juggle a tape from its intended place because it's not ready. I'm stressing out on the set, but our director, the unflappable James Ford, tells me in my ear piece, "Tom, we're not doing brain surgery. Relax. I'll let you know when it's in." He and videotape-feeder Jonathan Powell are unsung, behind-the-scenes people.

While we have crews in the field, I also have a crew back at the station working with me. Big Steve Purvis, who works for the Johnston County school system, has been helping me since 1991. It's so funny to me. The 6-foot-8 Purve will come sauntering in this Friday, my not having seen him since November, will take a seat at Bob Holliday's desk, and we'll pick up last year’s conversation just like it was a week ago.

Steve was teaching a TV production class at South Johnston back in '91 and called me up asking if he could help so he could learn a little bit more about the business. He's been so valuable that I beg him each year to come back. Thankfully, he does. He helps take information from the photographers, makes sure my script is in order, and sits on the set with me, tries to let me know when there are mistakes and times the show. Our out-time is a firm 12.03:15 am. If we run over that out-time, yours truly is called to the principal's office on Monday afternoon. You can imagine how that can ruin a day.

One of the hardest jobs is taking in the scores and making sure we have them all. I met Jonathan Smith back in 2003 when he was a senior at Clayton High School and expressed an interest in television. Jonathan worked as a note-taker for us during his freshman year at N.C. State, and for the last two years he's been in charge of making sure all the scores are in. If no one calls them in, he's on the phone looking for them. He and Jessica Lee, another Claytonite, Chris Morgan (who somehow can come up with scores nobody else can) and Emily Purvis also help compile our scoreboard of games that we didn't cover with video.

I can't urge people enough who attend games to help us by calling in scores. Our crews will leave cards at games and ask people to call in the score, but often it's 11:15 and still we don't have all we need. The responsibility lies with the home team, win or lose. Here's our toll free number: 1-888-472-9725. Your help will be much appreciated. The more called in, the merrier.

I will tell you that the hardest thing each week is to decide which games not to cover. There are more schools in the area than ever before, and we still have just 30 minutes to do the show. But trust me, if we're not covering your team’s game one week, we'll be there sooner or later. And please let us know if you think your school is being neglected.

As always, we appreciate our management for letting us do this program. Those in charge are the reason we still get to do Football Friday, and I can't thank them enough for their support.

Also, don't forget to check out WRAL.com's Football Friday page. It's as good as it comes and will go beyond what we do on television.

Oh, one more thing. In advance, I want to apologize for any mistakes. Unfortunately, there will be some. I'm afraid that when one is flying by the seat of one’s pants, they will happen. Just this week, a nice young man came up to me at the grocery store and said, "Back in 1990 you called me by the wrong name on Football Friday." That was 17 years ago, and I worried about it all this week. Please know there are no intentional mistakes, and nobody feels worse than I do when they happen.

We take Football Friday very seriously. I've told many people it's more to us than just a high school football show. It's a labor of love. We thank all of you who have watched over the years.